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SIMB News

News magazine of the Society for Industrial and April/May/June 2019 V.69 N.2 • www.simbhq.org & Origin of Concepts from Antiquity to the Present :ŽƵƌŶĂůŽĨ/ŶĚƵƐƚƌŝĂůDŝĐƌŽďŝŽůŽŐLJΘŝŽƚĞĐŚŶŽůŽŐLJ

Impact Factor 3.103

The Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology is an international journal which publishes papers in metabolic & synthetic ; biocatalysis; & culture; natural products discovery & ; bioenergy/biofuels/biochemicals; environmental microbiology; biotechnology methods; applied & biotechnology; and biotechnology & probiotics Editor-in-Chief ‡ Ramon Gonzalez, University of South Florida, Tampa FL, USA Editors Special Issue ^LJŶƚŚĞƚŝĐŝŽůŽŐLJ; July 2018 ‡ S. Bagley, Michigan Tech, Houghton, MI, USA ‡ R. H. Baltz, CognoGen Biotech. Consult., Sarasota, FL, USA Impact Factor 3.500 ‡ T. W. Jeffries, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA 3.000 ‡ T. D. Leathers, USDA ARS, Peoria, IL, USA 2.500 ‡ M. J. López López, University of Almeria, Almeria, Spain C. D. Maranas, Pennsylvania Univ., Univ. Park, PA, USA 2.000 ‡ 2.505 2.439 2.745 2.810 3.103 ‡ S. Park, UNIST, Ulsan, Korea 1.500 ‡ J. L. Revuelta, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain 1.000 ‡ B. Shen, Institute, Jupiter, FL, USA 500 ‡ D. K. Solaiman, USDA ARS, Wyndmoor, PA, USA ‡ Y. Tang, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA ‡ E. J. Vandamme, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium ‡ H. Zhao, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA 10 Most Cited Articles Published in 2016 ( from Web of : October 15, 2018)

Senior Author(s) Title Citations L. Katz, R. Baltz Natural discovery: past, present, and future 103 Genetic manipulation of secondary biosynthesis for improved production in Streptomyces and R. Baltz other actinomycetes 38 D. Chen,Y. Jiang, S. Yang Multiplex editing of the zĂƌƌŽǁŝĂůŝƉŽůLJƚŝĐĂ using the CRISPR-Cas9 36 S. Brady Culture-independent discovery of natural products from metagenomes 27 L. Chesnel, J. Silverman Discovery and development of surotomycinfor the treatment of ůŽƐƚƌŝĚŝƵŵĚŝĨĨŝĐŝůĞ 17 Genome neighborhood network reveals insights into enediyne biosynthesis and facilitates prediction and B. Shen prioritization for discovery 17 ĐŚŝŵĞƌŝĐɲ-amylase engineered from ĂĐŝůůƵƐĂĐŝĚŝĐŽůĂand 'ĞŽďĂĐŝůůƵƐƚŚĞƌŵŽůĞŽǀŽƌĂŶƐ with improved T. Satyanarayana thermostability and catalytic 15 Z. Deng Natural and engineered biosynthesis of nucleoside in Actinomycetes 14 Enhanced cellulase production by dƌŝĐŚŽĚĞƌŵĂŚĂƌnjŝĂŶƵŵ by cultivation on glycerol followed by PdaS. Delabona induction on cellulosic substrates 13 Effect of the cathode potential and on nitrate reduction in a microbial electrochemical T. Lee denitrification system 12 Submission Electronic access link.springer.com/journal/10295 ڼ ww.springer.com/10295 ڼ contents

news SIMB News 35 FERMENTATION: SOLVING 21ST CENTURY PROBLEMS Melanie Mormile | Editor-in-Chief 36 SIMB-RELATED NEWS Elisabeth Elder | Associate Editor Stephanie Gleason | Associate Editor feature Kristien Mortelmans | Associate Editor Vanessa Nepomuceno | Associate Editor 38 SPONTANEOUS GENERATION AND ORIGIN OF LIFE CONCEPTS FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE PRESENT DESIGN & PRODUCTION Katherine Devins | Production Manager meetings BOARD OF DIRECTORS 51 SIMB ANNUAL MEETING 2019 President Steve Dien 53 RAFT® 2019 President-Elect Jan Westpheling 57 NATURAL PRODUCTS 2020 Past President Debbie Yaver members Secretary Elisabeth Elder 2019 SIMB BOARD OF DIRECTORS ELECTION RESULTS Treasurer Laura Jarboe 63 DIVERSITY COMMITTEE Directors Joy Doran-Peterson 64 Thomas Klasson 68 SIMB COMMITTEES Tiffany Rau Michael Resch book review HEADQUARTERS STAFF 61 PLANT-MICROBE INTERACTIONS IN THE RHIZOSPHERE Christine Lowe | Executive Director Jennifer Johnson | Director of Member Services in every issue Tina Hockaday | Meeting Coordinator Suzannah Citrenbaum | Web Manager 34 CORPORATE MEMBERS Esperanza Montesa | Accountant 67 CALENDAR OF EVENTS EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE 71 CORPORATE MEMBER APPLICATION Melanie R. Mormile Email: [email protected]

ADVERTISING For information regarding rates, contact SIMB News On the cover 3929 Old Lee Highway, Suite 92A Top: .. From Wikimedia Fairfax, VA 22030-2421 P: 703-691-3357 ext 30 Commons and is in the Public Domain. F:703-691-7991 Email: [email protected] Bottom: . Copyright © www.simbhq.org 1981 The Regents of the University of SIMB News (ISSN 1043-4976), is published California. All Right Reserved. Used by quarterly, one volume per year, by the permission. Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology and is provided to all SIMB members. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CONTACT SIMB SIMB News, 3929 Old Lee Highway, Suite 92A, (703) 691-3357 Fairfax, VA 22030-2421 Executive Director Christine Lowe, Ext. 26 Copyright © 2019, Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology. Director of Member Services Jennifer Johnson, Ext. 23 All rights reserved. Meeting Coordinator Tina Hockaday, Ext. 24 Web Manager Suzannah Citrenbaum, Ext. 27 Accountant Esperanza Montesa, Ext. 22

April • May • June 2019 SIMB NEWS 33 corporate members

Diamond Members Silver Members ICM, Inc. Applikon Biotechnology, Inc. Novozymes, Inc. Corteva Agriscience Sartorius Stedium Biotech Envera, LLC. Gold Members Eppendorf Global Bioingredients, Inc. DCI-Biolafitte KATZEN International, Inc. Flownamics, Inc. Lallemand, Inc. Genesis Biosciences, Inc. m2P Labs Hamilton Company Moubio, LLC. INFORS USA Mycosynthetix, Inc. Kuhner Shaker, Inc. Panlabs Biologics, Inc. Marcor, an Azelis company Tatua USA Ltd. Procelys Traders Sensient Xylome Bronze Members Pneumatic Scale Angelus Institutional Members ERWAT Golden Leaf Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center - North Carolina State University

34 SIMB NEWS www.simbhq.org Fermentation: Solving 21st Century Problems TIM DAVIES, RUBUS SCIENTIFIC LTD. RAFT® 2019 CO-CHAIR Biological advances are regularly in the headlines. Seven of solutions can , scale and manufacture their products the top ten best selling drugs are biologics. CRISPR is almost quickly, with reduced risk, and at lower cost. This will facilitate a household word as is . Biotechnology- getting the outputs of the bio-economy on to the market derived are established in stores and restaurants. New where they can displace incumbent products and generate an biologically derived are newsworthy, whether impact. they come from spider and provide new functionality, or are used for packaging and provide better degradability. The RAFT® conference series has been at the forefront Biotechnology has emerged from the biofuel boom with of fermentation and biomanufacturing research and greater diversity and investors are recognising the promise with development for almost 30 years and in 2019 the impact of large investments in companies such as Gingko, Impossible the conference may never have been greater. 300 industry Foods and Indigo Agriculture. Despite this interest, we hear experts will gather under the Florida sun this October to less about biomanufacturing. Manufacturing is the engine share advances and brainstorm solutions to problems in a that drives the industry – sales revenue is not generated until a vibrant format that encourages discussion. Lecture sessions product hits the shelves – but it’s secrets remain hidden. focussing on the latest research and commercial offerings will be enhanced by round tables addressing some of the critical Our generation faces huge global challenges, captured in the issues that the industry faces. Most of all we will celebrate the UN sustainable development goals (Figure 1). Most of these industry. We want to send our delegates home knowing that can be impacted by the bio-economy, and by manufacturing what they are doing , and ready to make a difference. products that provide better sustainability and better health. Our industry has the opportunity to be a leader in advancing So, a call to arms: mark your calendars for October 27th to the the sustainability goals but this will need joined up thinking 30th, get involved by writing poster and paper abstracts so and technological advances. Ultimately it will require increased that we can all benefit from your expertise, and come ready capacity so that those companies and developing to participate and make a difference. We want you at RAFT® 13 this fall.

Figure 1 The UN Sustainablilty Goals - a call to arms for the biomanufacturing industry (www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals)

April • May • June 2019 SIMB NEWS 35 news SIMB-related News

Winners of SIMB science fair awards

Deb Graves, Dow, again judged the Montgomery County, PA Science Research Competition held March 22, 2019. Winners received SIMB-sponsored Amazon gift cards.

Congratulations to all of the schools with winning students:

» Upper Dublin High School » St. Teresa of Calcutta School

» Cheltenham High School » Cedarbrook Middle School

» Methacton High School » Arcola Intermediate School

» Germantown Academy Upper School

36 SIMB NEWS www.simbhq.org news SIMB-related News K. Thomas Klasson, PhD, Research Leader, Commodity Utilization Research Science Fair 2019 – New Orleans

SIMB sponsored two awards at the 2019 Greater New Orleans Science and Engineering Fair (GNOSEF) for the first time. We anticipate making this an annual sponsorship. This year’s Fair was held at Tulane University in New Orleans on February 18-21, 2019. Participation in GNOSEF encourages: independent student research in science and engineering; promotes the understanding and appreciation of ; encourages youth to pursue science, math, or engineering careers; stimulate interest and support for science and math programs in area schools; promote collaboration and between area students and scientists and engineers from the and/or the world. Overall, there were more than 175 entries at the Fair. SIMB sponsored a 1st place award of a Certificate and a $75 gift card for the Junior Division and a $125 gift card for the Senior Division to an individual student who demonstrate the best microbiology- or biotechnology-related project. SIMB Director K. Thomas Klasson served as judge and reviewed entries and spoke with those young scientists who had projects best fitting our criteria. A student from John Curtis Christian School in River Ridge, Louisiana, was recognized with the SIMB Award in the Junior Division for his work investigating which type of cleaning solutions worked best to control . By using a harmless strain, the student added paper disks soaked in cleaning solutions to petri dishes with E. coli and measured the kill zone diameter. The student found that the most effective solution was an antibacterial hand soap, beating out other contenders, including a solution used in hospital-grade wipes. A student representing the Patrick F. Taylor Science & Technology Academy in Westwego, Louisiana, received the SIMB Award in the Senior Division for his work on improving production by an algal . The student refined his previous research, entered in the 2018 GNOSEF, with the , Chlamydomonas reinhardii. For this year’s Fair, he expanded his focus by including data gathered with C. moewusii. In photosynthetic (transparent plastic tubes), he found that C. moewusii produced 270% more hydrogen than C. reinhardii, especially when the medium was modified to include higher level of some (e.g., magnesium). He tested three different media to come to this conclusion. Both of these aspiring researchers were well-deserving of the SIMB Award and have a great future in the field of science. SIMB congratulate them and wishes them all the best.

April • May • June 2019 SIMB NEWS 37 featurefeaature

Spontaneous Generation and Origin of Life Concepts from Antiquity to the Present

Erick J. Vandamme

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1. SPONTANEOUS GENERATION (SG) VERSUS NEO-

Spontaneous generation (SG) or “generatio spontanea” refers to the direct and quick formation of living cells or from inanimate or without descent from similar organisms. Spontaneous generation claimed that different types of life might repeatedly emerge in a time scale of hours, weeks, or a few years from sources other than plant seeds, eggs, or parents, such as river mud, dirt, sand, winds, , sea foam, and flour (Brack, 1998; Ball, 2016). Although the term SG has been around for centuries, the English physiologist Henry Charlton Bastian (1837-1915) disliked the ambiguity of the name SG and initially referred to it as “archebiosis” for life originating from inorganic matter. However, in 1870 he coined the term “” for formation of life from nonliving matter (Bastian, 1871). Since 1859 another term “heterogenesis” was also used by the French naturalist Félix Archimède Pouchet Figure 1: Thomas Henry (1800-1872) for the generation of living things from unrelated organisms or from once living organic Huxley (1825-1895), English matter (Farley and Geison, 1974; Roll-Hansen, 1979). Soon after the two Bastian’s terms, archebiosis and . biogenesis, were coined the famous English biologist (1825-1895) (Figure 1) introduced the term “”. However, in order to avoid further confusion, since his term “abiogenesis” somehow was related to Bastian’s term “biogenesis”, he adopted the term “biogenesis” for the where life arises from existing life (Bibby, 1972). Of interest is that the term “abiogenesis” is currently in use to refer to the early physical and chemical events that led to the abiotic formation of . This process finally resulted in the first life on , that then evolved over a time span of over 4.0 billion years to the diversification of life as is currently known. Several major ideas or hypotheses about this evolutionary process melted into a combination of Darwin’s , genetic variation and Mendelian inheritance, now designated as neo- Darwinism (Kutschera and Niklas, 2004). These ideas and hypotheses were backed up by numerous (micro)- records, rock - and broad, though not complete, experimental evidence such as chemical and physical simulation of early Earth conditions, microbial , , and whole genome .

Spontaneous generation as defined above is now an obsolete proposition, but it was taken for granted for over more than two millennia. The origin of living organisms and life in general has always intrigued mankind as is evidenced from ancient documents as well as from recent research and opinions (Zubay, 2000; Martin and Russel, 2003; Luisi, 2006; Herdewijn and Kusakürek, 2008; Steel and Penny, 2010; Knoll, 2004, 2011; Koonin, 2012). Even the introduction of the and the first viewings of in the , nor the propositions of the germ theory of with different agents causing different in the 18th century did not lead to disbelief in SG. It took until the mid- with Louis Pasteur in 1861 and John in 1881 to finally disproof Figure 2: (384-322 BC), Greek philosopher experimentally that GS did ever occur! and .

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The origin and the complex physical/chemical route towards the first ever (microbial) cell on early Earth remains a matter of debate (Bada and Lazcano, 2002; Herdewijn and Kisakürek, 2008; Parker et al., 2011; Jakschitz and Rode, 2012). The evolutionary road from the first to the “Last Universal Common Ancestor” or LUCA, now accepted as the most recent common ancestor, that recognizes the three domains of life we know today, involves several steps that remain unresolved (Cantine and Fournier, 2018). Despite this lingering controversy there is quite a general agreement today that LUCA must have had DNA as genetic material, and RNA to catalyze essential processes for growth and , and a membrane to enclose all its components (Penny and Poole, 1999; Koonin, 2003; Peretó et al., 2004; Lane et al., 2010; Swanson et al.,2016). Before LUCA was formed there was a prebiotic phase, where life’s essential and building blocks were generated via a of random “spontaneous” chemical and physical reactions and interactions, a proposition and process still arousing debate and doubt (Bada and Lazcano, 2002; Steel and Penny, 2010; Knoll, 2011; Swanson et al., 2016; Cantine and Fournier, 2018; Leisola and Witt, 2018).

2. ANTIQUITY AND SPONTANEOUS GENERATION

Ancient Chinese recordings from the Shang Figure 3: (1636-1680), Dutch biologist and microscopist Dynasty (ca.1600-1050 BC) and old Indian of the universe was eternally in motion and served as a documents already mentioned that aphid are spontaneously where elemental opposites (wet and dry, hot and cold) generated a generated from bamboo, and are generated from soil. terrestrial slime that shaped the many varied plants and in Babylonian clay tablets (1800-600 BC) mentioned that worms were the world. His pupil Anaximenes proposed that air was the element generated from river mud. As to the Western world, the Greek natural that brought life and endowed creatures with motion and thought. philosopher of Miletus (610-540 BC) is now recognized The poet and philosopher of Colophon (560-470 BC) as the first to propose in his book “On Physis (Peri Phuseos; On described fossil imprints of plants and animals and concluded from )” that life developed spontaneously from nonliving matter. his findings that the world had changed when compared to his time, He believed that all things arose from the elemental nature of suggesting a cyclic evolving natural world (Mayor, 2001). the universe (water, earth, fire and air) and that the primal

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Figure 4: (1578-1657), English Figure 5: Theodore Schwann (1810-1882), German , anatomist and physiologist. physiologist. of Agrigento (480-430 BC) accepted “generatio spontanea” of life this dominant view on SG of the previous philosophers and thinkers. also from the four elements, but proposed that water, earth, fire and He discussed SG in his books “De Civitate Dei” () air had combined in different ways that interchanged over time in and “De genesi ad Literam” (The Literal Meaning of Genesis), citing cohesion and chaos to yield in the end different life forms (Osborn, Biblical passages such as “Let the bring forth abundantly the 1894; Zirkle, 1941). The famous philosopher and all-round Greek moving creatures that have life” as laws that would enable ongoing scientist Aristotle (384-322 BC) (Figure 2) theorized extensively creation (Fry, 2000). on the reproduction of man and animals, whereas his colleague 3. SPONTANEOUS GENERATION DURING THE and successor (ca.372-287 BC) specialized in the MIDDLE AGES AND study of plants and minerals. For example, Aristotle proposed in his books “Historia Animalium” and “De Generatione Animalium” that With the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century up to the East- bivalves and snails were generated from mud, from sand West Schism in 1054, the influence of the Greek philosophers and (“abiogenesis”) and that eels emerged from . Of interest their science declined. However, belief in spontaneous generation is that he discussed sexual and parthenogenetic generation as well. as well as in the “miasma” theory proposed by the Greek physician Aristotle’s view had an enormous impact and supported a strong (129-ca. 200 AC) stating that disease transmission was caused belief in SG that lasted throughout the next two millennia (Lehoux, by “bad” air or vapor emanating from rotting organic matter stayed 2017). The Roman author, architect and engineer Marcus on. Aristotle‘s abiogenesis views were reintroduced into Western Pollio (ca.75-15 BC) advised that libraries be built facing eastwards in Arabic and reached the widest acceptance to benefit from morning sun, not towards the south or the west as in the 13th century, when Latin translations became available, also those winds generate bookworms. Even as a Christian theologian under the influence of theologian, philosopher and jurist Thomas and philosopher, Saint (354-430 AC) followed Aquinas (1225-1274). It was discussed in the literature well into the Renaissance (13-16th century), when even William Shakespeare (1564-

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4. GRADUAL DISBELIEF IN SPONTANEOUS GENERATION: INFLUENCE OF 16TH TO 18TH CENTURY SCIENTISTS

From the 16th century onwards ancient beliefs were put to the test. The Flemish , physiologist and physician (1580-1644) is considered as one of the first to perform to check natural phenomena. According to him, tree growth was due to water uptake and food was not digested by the body’s but was aided by a “ferment” within the body (Pagel, 2002). In 1632 the famous English physician, anatomist and physiologist William Harvey (1578-1657) (Figure 4) described blood circulation in the body. He also concluded, based on dissecting pregnant , that life originates from invisible eggs, since embryos are not visible during the first month of pregnancy. In his book “Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium”, he expressed that everything originates from eggs (“Omnia ex Ovo”) (Fry, 2000). Italian physician, biologist and poet (1626-1697) Figure 6: Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), French biologist, and chemist. challenged in 1668 the then still generally believed idea that 1616) mentioned that snakes and crocodiles were formed from mud arose spontaneously from rotting meat by a series of experiments of the Nile. However, change was to come based on meticulous with meat placed in gauze covered open and closed jars. Flies could studies of the various and differing stages of development only enter the open jars and only under those conditions could (egg, , and adult). The Dutch biologist and microscopist Jan maggots appear. Then Redi collected them and waited for them to Swammerdam (1637-1680) (Figure 3) rejected as a first the concept metamorphose into flies. He used his experiments to support the that one could spontaneous arise from another one or from preexistence theory of the Church at that time, stating that living putrefaction just by chance and thus he doubted spontaneous things originate from their parents. He formulated his famous adage generation. However, he associated it with an atheistic view, a fact “omne vivum ex vivo”, all life comes from life. He described in 1684 that he could not support (Ruestow, 1985). parasites of animals produce eggs from which offspring are developed (Fry, 2000; Hawgood, 2003). All these experiments contradicted clearly the prevailing opinion that these small “animals” were spontaneously generated. A few decades later Italian botanist Pier Antonio Micheli

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material. More proof came in 1837, when independently the German physiologist Theodore Schwann (1810-1882) (Figure 5) and the French inventor and physicist Charles Cagniard de la Tour (1777-1859) discovered and yeast in alcoholic fermentation and by microscopic examination of foam from the beer brewing process. Beer fermentation would not occur if dividing yeast cells were not present. Also, when sterile air was introduced in the beer broth and no yeast cells were present, fermentation would not start. The Dutch scientist Antonie van (1632-1723) had observed in 1680 such “small spherical globules” under his microscope, but did not consider them as living cells. Schwann’s observations further damaged the claims at that time that SG was involved in fermentation processes. He had observed that aeration of vessels, filled with broth in the presence of heated air (as was believed to be essential for SG to occur) prevented microbial growth. He thus concluded that the germs in the air had been destroyed by the heat (Aszmann, 2000).

Figure 7: (1820-1883), Irish physicist. 5. IMPACT OF LOUIS PASTEUR (1822-1895) (1679-1737) described in 1729 details characteristic of 1,900 plants and AND JOHN TYNDALL (1820-1883) 900 fungi. For instance, he observed that fungal , when placed Decisive experiments by Louis Pasteur (Figure 6) and John Tyndall on melon-slices, reproduced the same type that the spores (Figure 7) were to settle forever the over 23 centuries lingering came from. Based on these observations he noted that fungi did not dispute about spontaneous generation. The debate on SG culminated arise from SG. English biologist and priest John Needham (1713-1781) in the late 1850s in , when the French naturalist Félix Archimède also experimented in 1745 on SG. He believed that boiling broths in Pouchet (1800-1872), a leading proponent of SG, challenged the views flasks would kill all living things, but upon cooling in the open air and of Theodore Schwann and of Louis Pasteur. Both supported the germ subsequent sealing, the broths would cloud (in hindsight by growth theory, stating that microorganisms/germs arose from germs and of microbes). These findings allowed the belief in SG to persist, those from parents of the same species and also that germs were despite the microscope becoming available since the 1680s to these present everywhere, including in the air and on inanimate matter. early researchers (Needham, 1745). Needham, and also the influential French naturalist George-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon, (1707-1788) concluded that there is a life generating force inherent to certain types of inorganic matter that causes living microbes to create themselves over time. It was an Italian priest, biologist and physiologist (1729-1799) who really challenged in 1768 the theory of SG of microbes in modifying Needham’s by boiling broths for over one hour in sealed containers (with the air partially evacuated to prevent explosions), with no reappearance of microbes as a result. He proposed that microbes moved in through the air and that they could be killed through boiling (Nordenskiöld,1935). Over time many similar observations demonstrated that, when careful experimentation was followed, biological reproduction was Figure 8: Diagram of Pasteur’s swan neck tube based on existing complex structures rather than on muds and dead experiment.

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neck was allowed to enter the flasks by purposefully tilting the flask to allow the broth to reach the “dust”. Louis Pasteur’s famous but “simple” experiments of 1860- 1861 are now widely accepted as being decisive for finishing off SG (Dubos,1950; Farley and Geison,1974; Roll-Hansen,1979). Also, the prominent physicist John Tyndall, a correspondent and admirer of Pasteur, further contributed to the complete fall of SG in the period 1876-1881 by developing a method for fractional sterilization, named “Tyndallization” of broths that killed also bacterial , that normally survived boiling as demonstrated in 1876 by (1828-1898). Tyndall described his experiments in a book “Assays on the Floating Matter of the Air in Relation to Putrefaction and ” (Tyndall, 1881; Eve and Creasy,1945). A few years later in 1879, a coworker of Pasteur, Figure 9: Stanley Miller (1930-2007), American (1851-1908), developed unglazed porcelain filters, with pores smaller chemist. than the size of (though not the size of ), enabling

Although Pouchet was a renowned animal physiologist, he assumed the sterilization of liquids without heating. His research in 1884 also that living things originated from inanimate matter, including air, led to the development of the autoclave, now universally in use and calling the process “heterogenesis”. In 1858 Pouchet contested essential in research and in industry, related to the microbiology, Schwann’s results based on his own similar experiments. Louis Pasteur biotech, fermentation, pharma, medical, food and sanitation sectors. wrote to Pouchet in 1859, mentioning that he respected his belief in 6. ORIGIN OF FIRST LIFE FROM NON-LIVING SG, but that he did not agree with his experimental results because MATTER (“ABIOGENESIS” OR PREBIOTIC of a poor set up. Despite this criticism Pouchet published in 1859 ) AND SUBSEQUENT EVOLUTION his major scientific book (in French) “Heterogenesis or Treatise on OF LIFE Spontaneous Generation”, endorsing SG in claiming that the eggs of adult organisms are spontaneously generated, not the adults 6.1. EARTH’S themselves (Farley and Geison, 1974; Roll-Hansen,1979). To solve this From the 1920s onwards, hypotheses on the prebiotic evolution were controversy, the French Academy of Sciences, in favor of Pasteur’s formulated in 1924 by the Soviet biochemist Alexander I. Oparin views, established in January 1860 a prize for detailed experimentation (1894-1980) as well as in 1929 by the British visionary biologist and that could solve this matter once and forever. Pasteur decided to John B.S Haldane (1892-1964). The formation of organic participate in this competition with the well-known outcome as biomolecules, such as amino acids, hydroxy acids, , and a result. His sterile broth containing flasks open to the air with a other biomolecules, could have been formed by the effects of downwards curved swan neck tube (Figure 8) remained sterile for atmospheric forces (UV-, lightning, space dust, etc.) or days, until the “air-dust” (particles/spores/ bacteria) collected in the

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 Jakschitz and Rode, 2012). Furthermore, it has been demonstrated Figure 10: Diagram of Miller’s experiment. that short RNA molecules can indeed act as catalysts (ribozymes) in volcanic activity on the of the prebiotic Earth’s their own formation as well as in that of other biologically significant (, , water, hydrogen sulfide, monoxide, etc.) reactions such as condensation of amino acids into (as and/or on abiotic inorganic solutes in superheated thermal vents in in “modern” ). Lipid-like compounds in the primordial the Earth’s deep oceans. This theory of the Earth’s “primordial soup” soup could spontaneously form bilayer structures able to enclose being the origin of first life became known as the Oparin-Haldane primitive proteins and nucleic acids to form primitive cellular entities hypothesis (Oparin,1924; Haldane, 1929; Schopf, 1999, 2002; Yockey, or “”. The first cells were not as complex as the current 2005). microbes and their type of is unknown. Based on these propositions and facts, it is now generally agreed that the first proto- This hypothesis was tested in 1953 in a now classical experiment microorganisms were probably anaerobic chemoautotrophs (Lazcano carried out by Stanley L. Miller (1930-2007) (Figure 9) in the and Miller, 1996; Martin and Russel, 2003; Knoll, 2004; Luisi, 2006; of the Nobel Prize winner Harold C. Urey at the University Herdewijn and Kusakürek, 2008; Steel and Penny, 2010; Mulkidjanian, of Chicago. His experiment, as shown in Figure 10, did confirm 2012; Pross, 2012). Anaerobic chemoautotrophic bacteria and that the above-mentioned biomolecules could arise by chemical (such as acetogens, , and others), are today still abound evolution on the prebiotic Earth (Miller, 1953, 1987). Since then on Earth in locations such as in deep sea vents and in volcanic areas. more sophisticated lab experiments and sensitive analyses have However, these results suggest a long evolution after LUCA. provided ample evidence that many chemical components of living cells (amino acids, , peptides, , RNA- like molecules, and others) can form under such harsh conditions (Ring et al., 1972; Powner et al., 2009; Szostak, 2009; Parker et al, 2011;

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Figure 11: A 1990 phylogenic tree linking all major groups of living organisms to the LUCA (shown as the black trunk at the bottom of the image).

though still controversial, could be that about 3.5 billion years ago, 6.2. CURRENT VIEWS ON ORIGIN OF early microorganisms gradually became able to derive from EARLY CELLS (MICROORGANISMS) AND compounds in their environment and use that energy to synthesize SUBSEQUENT MICROBIAL AND ORGANISMAL their own organic molecules. EVOLUTION In 1996 the earliest indication of life, ca. 3.7 - 3.45 billion years old, The Earth was formed about 4.6 billion years ago, then was proposed, based on forms of graphite-carbon with a distinct liquified and oceans formed 4.3 billion years ago, and between this biological origin embedded in , in the Isua event and 3.85 billion years ago, biological evolution started with supracrustal belt in the Nuuk area in Western Greenland (Rosing, no free oxygen present. The first cells probably arose in a reducing 1999; Ohtomo et al., 2014). A higher level of the lighter isotope atmosphere in hot surroundings and obtained energy from inorganic 12C-carbon being present in the rock (leaving an isotopic fingerprint) fuel molecules such as ferrous sulfide (FeS) and ferrous carbonate. This was interpreted as a biological carbon uptake activity. However, this is the “hydrothermal hypothesis” but another mesophilic “lukewarm kind of isotopic traces can be produced by abiotic processes and little pond” hypothesis seems also possible, where the abundance are not unambiguous traces of life. The earliest putative claimed of clay minerals on early Earth could also be important. The organic lifeforms are fossilized tubular shaped microorganisms, found in biomolecules that were needed may have arisen by non-biological 2017 in 4.28 billion years old iron and silica rich rocks that were once reactions described above (Schopf, 1999, 2002; Powner et al, 2009; hydrothermal vents in the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt in Quebec, Jakschitz and Rode, 2012; Mulkidjanian, 2012; Pross, 2012). A scenario, Canada (Dodd et al., 2017). However here again, the biogenicity

46 SIMB NEWS www.simbhq.org feature of these fossilized tubes is controversial and even the age of the eukaryotic steranes in the time interval of 1.6 -1.0 billion years ago, successions is still under discussion. A further significant evolutionary demonstrated that algae did not yet play a significant role in these step was the development of pigments capable of capturing energy mid-Proterozoic oceans (Gueneli et al., 2018). from , to be used to reduce CO2 to more complex organic These fossil records indicate that bacterial life dominated planet Earth compounds. This photosynthetic process initially used H2S as for about the first 3 billion years, until larger planktonic algae and then donor yielding elemental or sulfate as byproducts. metazoans appeared. These recent findings support the hypothesis In rocks that are 3.5 billion years old or younger, fossilized microbial that small bacterial cells then at the base of the food chain limited formations called are quite common. They consist of the flow of energy to higher trophic levels, potentially retarding the mats of layers of probably filamentous anoxygenic photobacteria, of more complex multicellular life forms, such as animals, although no unambiguous have been found (Allwood that appeared only 0.8 to 0.6 billion years ago. Despite these recent et al., 2009; Sugitani et al., 2015; Knoll et al., 2016). Microfossils have findings, it remains difficult to establish the link between primary been found that are about 3.45 and 3.2 billion years old but their bacterial production and the late proliferation of larger and complex identity and metabolism are still unknown. Around 2.45 billion years organisms because the mid-Proterozoic rock record (1.8 billion and ago, and perhaps earlier, some cells developed the capacity to use 800 million years ago) is nearly devoid of recognizable phytoplankton H2O as electron donor, liberating O2 as “waste”. are . the descendants of these early oxygenic photosynthetic bacteria that gradually brought oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere. With the More than 1.1 billion years ago, early eukaryotic cells had enveloped development of an atmosphere enriched in oxygen by cyanobacteria, aerobic or facultative anaerobic protobacteria and photosynthetic aerobic bacteria appeared that were able to obtain energy by passing cyanobacteria to form endosymbiosis associations that became from fuel molecules to oxygen (Javaux et al., 2001; Javaux, permanent and led to mitochondria of modern and the 2011; Knoll et al., 2016). Starting 1.7-1.5 billion years ago, fossil records of algae and plants, respectively (Margulis, 1996; Margulis show evidence of larger and more complex organisms, the earliest and Schwartz, 2001). At much later stages, less than 1.0 billion years eukaryotic cells, still being unicellular. DNA-protein complexes ago, unicellular organisms clustered together to gain efficiency. This (“chromosomes”) were formed and intracellular compartmentalization led eventually quite late, at about 0.8 to 0.6 billion years ago, to the stabilized the cell content (Javaux et al., 2001; Javaux, 2011). Recently first highly differentiated metazoan organisms as we know them in July 2018, at the Australian National University, Canberra, scientists today. In parallel today, bacteria and archaea continue to inhabit reported the presence of intact photopigments that are every in the and evolve and adapt even typical for cyanobacteria in marine black shale sedimentary rock of to manmade conditions quickly. the Taoudeni Basin in Mauritanian Sahara, Africa. These rocks dated as being 1.1 billion years old, which is 600 million years older than 6.3. TREE OF LIFE OR RING/WEB OF LIFE? reported in previous findings (Gueneli et al., 2018). At that time period, The enormous abundance of microbes on Earth is a result of their the oceans of the Earth were stratified and virtually devoid of long evolutionary path. Proof of shared ancestry is the fact that all multicellular animal life, but early eukaryotes, such as multicellular existing organisms, including humans, contain footprints of a unique red , were already diversifying and their microfossils were ancestor in their DNA. The most useful DNA sequences to reconstruct preserved in the same sediments (Beghin et al., 2017). The the evolution of life on Earth are those that processes shared isotopic values of the fossil pigments showed that the oceans were by all life forms, such as mediated protein synthesis. Based dominated by cyanobacteria, while larger planktonic algae were on this principle, DNA sequencing technology and comparing 16S scarce. Based on fossil carotenoid pigments, anoxygenic green rRNA and their , pioneers Carl R. Woese (1928-2012) (Chlorobiaceae) and purple sulfur bacteria (Chromatiaceae) also and George E. Fox (born in 1945) proposed in 1977 the now iconic contributed to . Furthermore, a lack of diagnostic three-domain “tree of life”, reconstructing the evolutionary history (phylogeny) of various micro- and macro-organisms, leading to three distinct evolutionary groups (domains): Bacteria, Archaea and

April • May • June 2019 SIMB NEWS 47 feature

Eukarya (Fox et al., 1977; Woese et al., 1990; Woese, 2002, 2004). In and Nudler, 2013; McInerney et al., 2014). Especially the gaps in fossil the meantime, many other genes have been used to reconstruct the records, lacunae in proof by chemical and physical experimentation, genealogy of all life forms based on the accumulation of mutations in and biased hypotheses led certain religious and intellectual groups to the target genes and all data support the tree domain view, with an advocate “creationism” or “ (ID)”, believing that first early branching of Bacteria and Archaea lineages and the branching life and later evolution came about through an intervening designer, of Eukarya from the Archaea lineage (Spang et al., 2015). creator or god (Leisola and Witt, 2018). Spontaneous and random early physical and chemical reactions on early Earth must have been Recently with entire genome sequencing technology becoming instrumental over one billion years for the first form of life to appear. widely available, whole can be sequenced and analyzed Therefore, it is difficult to reconcile “spontaneous generation” as rapidly and inexpensively. This technology allows the consideration of outlined above with the ever-increasing scientific evidence for how not only mutational changes of rRNA-genes, but also horizontal gene the first form(s) of life evolved (Boudry et al., 2010; Koonin, 2012; Pross, transfer (lateral exchange of genetic material among organisms) as a 2012; McInerney et al., 2014). major driver for genetic variation. Such genome-scale phylogenetic studies support now a “ring of life” or “web of life” model, whereby About the authors: Dr. Erick J. Vandamme is Emeritus Eukarya are no longer a primary lineage but form a chimeric group Professor at the Center of Industrial Biotechnology and of a symbiotic origin from the Bacteria and Archaea lineages, even Synthetic Biology in the Department of Biotechnology, with the noncellular viruses involved or with viruses as a distinct Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, but a parallel world to cells (Koonin, 2012; Swithers and Katz, 2013; Ghent, Belgium. Swanson et al., 2016). This “ring/web of life” reconciles the genomic Contact with the author may be made by email: data by positioning the Bacteria and the Archaea as the two primary [email protected]. and ancient lineages evolved from a common “LUCA” ancestor. The Eukarya are then seen as a hybrid group that evolved from ACKNOWLEDGMENTS the Bacteria and the Archaea after their diversification had already started. The author is indebted to:

7. CONCLUSIONS AND PERSPECTIVES Dr. Nur Gueneli, Australian National University, Canberra, , for providing recent research data. From the above condensed summary of old and recent fossil records, science based hypotheses, advanced laboratory experiments, and Prof. Dr. Emmanuelle J. Javaux, Early Life Traces & Evolution- recent whole genome scale analyses, it is clear that the proposed Laboratory, Department of , Université de Liège, events leading to the origin of first life on Earth are quite logical. Belgium, for critical reading of the overall manuscript and suggestions However, the proposed events are not yet resolved in detail, nor is of relevant references. the subsequent evolution of prokaryotic life towards multicellular Dr. Kristien Mortelmans, Biosciences Division, SRI International, Meno eukaryotic organisms understood. In addition, several scientific ideas Park, CA, USA, for critical reading of the final manuscript and help are still circulating with ever more and more facts accumulating to with the illustrations. build on these proposed events. It is now widely accepted that all life today evolved from a common ancestor, a primitive lifeform (LUCA) 8. REFERENCES: based on a natural process about 4.3 to 3.5 billion years ago (Figure Allwood, A. C., Grotzinger, J. P., Knoll, A. H., Burch, I. W., Anderson, M. S., Coleman, M. L., and Kanik, I. 2009. Controls on development and 11). It is not yet resolved whether “” based on the RNA- diversity of early stromatolites. PNAS, USA. 106(24):9548-9555. world hypothesis, being the most popular hypothesis today, came Aszmann, O.C. 2000. The life and work of Theodore Schwann. J. first. Or instead was it the protein world hypothesis with focus on Reconstructive Microsurgery. 16(4):291-295. proteins and metabolism? Also, not resolved is how membraned cells Bada, J. L. and Lazcano, A. 2002. Some like it hot, but not the first biomolecules. Science. 296(5575):1982-1983 developed (Gesteland et al., 2006; Yarus, 2002; Müller, 2006; McGary

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Ball, P. 2016. Man Made: A History of Synthetic Life. Distillations. 2(1):15-23. Knoll, A.H. 2011. The Deep History of Life. Microbe ASM. 6(2):75-78.

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Beghin, J., Storme, J.Y., Blanpied, C., Gueneli, N., Brocks, J.J., Poulton, S.W., Koonin, E.V. 2003. , minimal gene-sets and the last and Javaux, E.J. 2017. Microfossils from the late Mesoproterozoic–early universal common ancestor. Nature Reviews Microbiology. 1(2):127. Neoproterozoic Atar/El Mreïti Group, Taoudeni Basin, Mauritania, northwestern Africa. Research. 291:63-82. Koonin, E.V. 2012. The Logic of Chance: The Nature and Origin of Biological Evolution. pp.516. Pearson Education, Inc. NJ, USA. Bibby, C. 1972. Scientist Extraordinary: the life and work of Thomas Henry Huxley 1825–1895. Oxford: Pergamon, UK. Kutschera, U. and Niklas, K.J. 2004. The modern theory of biological evolution: an expanded synthesis. Naturwissenschaften. Boudry, M., Blancke, S. and Braeckman, J. 2010. Irreducible Incoherence 91(6):255-276. and Intelligent Design. A look into the Conceptual Toolbox of a Pseudoscience. The Quarterly Review of Biology. 85(4):473-482. Lane, N., Allen, J.F. and Martin, W. 2010. How did LUCA make a living? Chemiosmosis in the origin of life. BioEssays. 32(4):271-280. Brack, A. (ed.), 1998. The Molecular Origins of Life: Assembling Pieces of the Puzzle. Cambridge University Press, UK. Lazcano, A. and Miller, S. L. 1996. The origin and early evolution of life: prebiotic chemistry, the pre-RNA world and time. Cell. 85:793-798. Cantine, M. D. and Fournier, G. P. 2018. Environmental from the origin of life to the last universal common ancestor. Origins of Life and Leisola, M. and Witt, J. 2018. Heretic: One Scientist’s Journey from Darwin to Evolution of . 48(1):35-54. Design. pp.258. Discovery Institute Press, Seattle, WA, USA.

Dodd, M.S., Papineau, D., Grenne, T., Slack, J.F., Rittner, M., Pirajno, F., Lehoux, D. 2017. Creatures Born of Mud and Slime: The Wonder and O’Neil, J, and Little, C.T.S. 2017. Evidence for early life in Earth’s oldest Complexity of Spontaneous Generation. precipitates. Nature. 543(7643):60–64. Press, Baltimore, MD, USA.

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Farley, J. and Geison, G. 1974. Science, politics and spontaneous generation Margulis, L. and Schwartz, K.V. 2001. Five Kingdoms: An Illustrated Guide to in nineteenth century France: the Pasteur-Pouchet debate. Bulletin of the Phyla of Life on Earth (3rd ed.). W.H. Freeman and Company, New History of . 48 (2):161-198. York, USA.

Fox, G.E., Pechman, K.R. and Woese, C.R. 1977. Comparative cataloging of 16S Martin, W. and Russel, M.J. 2003. On the origin of cells: a hypothesis ribosomal RNA: molecular approach to prokaryotic . Int. J. for the evolutionary transitions from abiotic to Syst. Bacteriol. 27:44-57. chemoautotrophic , and from prokaryotes to nucleated cells. Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. B. 358:59-85. Fry, I. 2000. The emergence of life on Earth. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ, USA. Mayor, A. 2001. The First Fossil Hunters in Greek and Roman Times. Princeton University Press. NJ, USA. Gesteland, R.F., Atkins, J.F. and Czech, T.R. (eds.). 2006. The RNA World. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, NY, USA. McGary, K. and Nudler, E. 2013. RNA polymerase and the ribosome: a close relationship. Curr. Opin. Microbiol. 16:112-117. Gueneli, N., McKenna, A.M., Ohkouchi, N., Boreham, C.J., Beghin, J., Javaux, E.J. and Brocks, J.J. 2018. 1.1-billion-year-old establish a McInerney, J.O., O’Connell., M.J. and Pisani, D. 2014. The hybrid nature marine dominated by bacterial primary producers. PNAS, of the Eukaryota and a consilient view of life on Earth. Nat. Rev. USA, published ahead of print July 9, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1073/ Microbiol.12:449-455. pnas.1803866115. Miller, S.L. 1953. A Production of Amino Acids under possible primitive Earth Haldane, J.B.S. 1929. The Origin of Life. Rationalist Annual. 148:3-10. Conditions. Science, 117:528-529.

Hawgood, B.J. 2003. Francesco Redi (1626-1697): Tuscan philosopher, Miller, S.L. 1987. Which organic compounds could have occurred on physician and poet. J. Med. Biography.11(1):28-34. prebiotic Earth? Cold Spring Harb. Symp. Quant. Biol., 52:17-27.

Herdewijn, P. and Kisakürek, M.V.(eds). 2008. Origin of Life: Chemical Mulkidjanian, A.Y. 2012. Origin of first cells at terrestrial anoxic geothermal Approach. pp.430, Wiley-VCH. fields. PNAS USA, 109(14):82-830.

Jakschitz, T.A. and Rode, B.M. 2012. Chemical evolution from simple Müller, U.F. 2006. Re-creating an RNA World. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 63:1278-1293. inorganic compounds to chiral peptides. Chem. Soc. Rev. 41(18):5484- Needham, J.T. 1745. New microscopical discoveries: containing observations. 5489. London. For highlights of Needham’s work see: Roe, Shirley A. “John Javaux, E. 2011. Early eukaryotes in Precambrian oceans. Origins and Turberville Needham and the Generation of Living Organisms. Isis 74, evolution of life: An astrobiological perspective. Cambridge University no. 2 (1983): 159-84. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23310. Press, Cambridge, UK. Nordenskiöld, E.P. 1935. Spallanzani, L. The . Reprinted by Javaux, E. J., Knoll, A. H., and Walter, M. R. 2001. Morphological and ecological Tudor Publishing Company, 1936. complexity in early eukaryotic . Nature. 412(6842): 66-69. Ohtomo, Y., Kakegawa, T., Ishida, A., Nagase, T. and Rosing, M.T. Knoll, A.H. 2004. Life on a young planet: the first three billion years of 2014. Evidence for biogenic graphite in early Archaean Isua evolution on Earth. Princeton university Press, NJ, USA. metasedimentary rocks. Nature Geoscience. 7:25-28.

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Oparin, A.I. 1924. The Origin of Life. Moscow Worker Publisher, Moscow (in Woese, C.R. 2002. On the evolution of cells. PNAS USA. 99:8742-8747. Russian). Woese, C.R. 2004. A new biology for a new century. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. Osborn, H.F. 1894. From the Greeks to Darwin: An outline of the 68:173-186. development of the evolution idea. History publisher, MacMillan, New York, NY, USA. Woese, C.R., Kandler, O. and Wheelis, M.L.1990. Towards a natural system of organisms: proposal for the domains Archaea, Bacteria and Eucarya. Pagel, W. 2002. Joan Baptista van Helmont: Reformer of Science and PNAS, USA. 87:4576-4579. Medicine, Cambridge University Press, UK. Yarus, M. 2002. Primordial genetics: of the ribocyte. Ann. Parker, E.T., Cleaves, H.J., Dworkin, J.P., Glavin, D.P., Callahan, M., Abrey, A., Rev. Genet. 36:125-151. Lazcano, A., Bada, J.L. 2011. Primordial synthesis of amines and amino acids in a 1958 Miller H2S -rich spark discharge experiment. PNAS USA, Yockey, H.P. 2005. , evolution and the origin of life. pp.259. 108(12):5526-5531. Cambridge University Press, UK.

Penny, D. and Poole, A. 1999. The nature of the last universal common Zirkle, C. 1941. Natural Selection before the “Origin of Species”. Proc. Amer. ancestor. Current Opinion in Genetics and Development. 9(6):672-677. Philosoph. Soc. 84(1):71-123.

Peretó, J., López-García, P., and Moreira, D. 2004. Ancestral lipid biosynthesis Zubay, G. 2000. Origins of Life on the Earth and in the Cosmos. (2nd edition). and early membrane evolution. Trends in Biochemical Sciences. Academic Press. USA. 29(9):469-477. LEGENDS TO FIGURES Powner, M.W., Gerland, B. and Sutherland, J.D. 2009. Synthesis of Activated Ribonucleotides in Prebiotically Plausible Conditions. • Figure 1: Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895), English biologist. Nature, 459:239-242. From Wikimedia Commons and is in the Public Domain. Pross, A. 2012. What is Life? How Chemistry Becomes Biology. pp.197; Oxford • Figure 2: Aristotle (384-322 BC), Greek philosopher University Press, Oxford, UK. and scientist. This file is licensed under the Creative Ring, D., Wolman, Y., Friedman, N., Miller, S.L. 1972. Prebiotic synthesis of Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported (https:// hydrophobic and protein amino acids. PNAS, USA. 69(3):765-768. creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en) license.

Roll-Hansen, N. 1979. Experimental method and spontaneous generation: • Figure 3: Jan Swammerdam (1636-1680), Dutch biologist and the controversy between Pasteur and Pouchet,1859-1864. Journal of microscopist. From Wikimedia Commons and is in the Public Domain. the and Allied Sciences. 34 (3), 237-292.

Rosing, M. T. 1999. 13 C-depleted carbon microparticles in >3700-Ma sea-floor • Figure 4: William Harvey (1578-1657), English physician, anatomist and sedimentary rocks from West Greenland. Science. 283: 674–676. physiologist. From Wikimedia Commons and is in the Public Domain.

Ruestow, E.G. 1985. Piety and the defense of natural order: Swammerdam on • Figure 5: Theodore Schwann (1810-1882), German physiologist. This file generation. pp.217–241. In: Religion, Science and Worldview: Essays in is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 international Honor of Richard S. Westfall. (M. Osler and P.L. Farber, Eds.). Cambridge (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en) license. University Press, Cambrdge, UK. • Figure 6: Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), French biologist, microbiologist Schopf, J.W. 1999. Cradle of Life: The Discovery of Earth’s Earliest Fossils. Princeton University Press, NJ, USA. and chemist. From Wikimedia Commons and is in the Public Domain.

Schopf, J.W. (ed.) 2002. Life’s Origin: the beginnings of biological evolution. • Figure 7: John Tyndall (1820-1883), Irish physicist. From University California Press, CA, USA. Wikimedia Commons and is in the Public Domain.

Spang, A., Saw, J.H., Jørgensen, S.L., Zaremba-Niedzwiedzka, K., Martijn, J., • Figure 8: Diagram of Pasteur’s swan neck tube experiment. Lind, A.E., and Ettema, TJ. 2015. Complex Archaea that bridge the gap From Wikimedia Commons and is in the Public Domain. between prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Nature. 521(7551):173-179. • Figure 9: Stanley Miller (1930-2007), American Chemist. Steel, M. and Penny, D. 2010. Origins of Life: common ancestry put to the Copyright © 1981 The Regents of the University of test. Nature, 465:168-169. California. All Right Reserved. Used by permission. Sugitani, K., Mimura, K., Takeuchi, M., Lepot, K., Ito, S., and Javaux, E. J. 2015. Early evolution of large microorganisms with cytological complexity • Figure 10: Diagram of Miller’s experiment. From Wikimedia revealed by microanalyses of 3.4 Ga organicwalled microfossils. Commons. Permission is granted to copy/distribute the document , 13(6) :507-521. under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

Swanson, M.E., Reguera, G.; Schaechter, M. and Neidhardt, F. 2016. Microbe • Figure 11: A 1990 phylogenic tree linking all major groups of (2nd Edition). ASM Press, Washington DC, USA. living organisms to the LUCA (shown as the black trunk at the Swithers, K.S and Katz, L.A. 2013. Reconstructing the Tree of Life. Microbe bottom of the image). This file is in the Public Domain in the (ASM), 8(6):249-253. United States because it was solely created by NASA.

Szostak, J. 2009. Systems Chemistry on Early Earth. Nature. May 14. 459:171- 172.

Tyndall, J. 1881. Essays on the Floating Matter of the Air in relation to Putrefaction and Infection. 1966. Johnson Reprint Corporation, New York, NY, USA.

50 SIMB NEWS www.simbhq.org meetings

SIMB Annual Meeting & Exhibition

Marriott Wardman Park Hotel July 21-24, 2019 Washington, D.C. www.simbhq.org/annual

Keynote Policy (OSTP) where she served for three years until January Speaker 2017, and was on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin and Yale University before that. She received her Ph.D. at the Jo Handelsman, University of Wisconsin-Madison in and University of has since authored over 100 papers, 30 editorials and 5 books. She is responsible for groundbreaking studies in microbial Wisconsin- and work in the field of . She Madison is also widely recognized for her contributions to and diversity in science. Notably, she received the Dr. Jo Handelsman Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, , and is the Director of the Engineering Mentoring from President Obama in 2011, and in Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin- 2012, Nature named her one of “ten people who mattered this Madison, a Vilas Research Professor, and Howard Hughes year” for her research on gender bias in science. Medical Institute Professor. She previously served as a science advisor to President Barack Obama as the Associate Director for Science at the White House Office of Science and Technology

April • May • June 2019 SIMB NEWS 51 meetings

2019 Chair Premeeting Workshops

Katy Kao, Texas A&M University Sunday, July 21, 2019 INDUSTRIAL GENOME ENGINEERING: MODERN Sessions on: TOOLS, APPROACHES AND APPLICATIONS

» Biocatalysis Organizers: Claes Gustafsson, ATUM and Shawn Szyjka, Zymergen » Environmental » Fermentation and FERMENTATION BASICS » Metabolic Engineering Organizer: Mark Berge, Medimmune » Natural Products » Special Topics Exhibit prospectus now available! Diversity Session Session and event sponsorships Science Slam Sunday available

2 Poster Sessions Sunday and Monday Thank you to our sponsors Call for Award Nominations: BASF CONAGEN Charles Thom Award CODEXIS NOVOZYMES Charles Porter Award PIVOT BIO MANUSBIO SIMB Fellowship FRANCIS TEMPLETON FUND Waksman Outstanding Teaching Award

SIMB Young Investigator Award

Diversity Awards

Student Oral and Poster Presentation Awards

52 SIMB NEWS www.simbhq.org meetings

Recent Advances in Fermentation Technology (RAFT®)

Hyatt Regency Coconut Point October 27-30, 2019 Ft. Myers (Bonita Springs), FL www.simbhq.org/raft

Chair: Tiffany Rau Exhibitor prospectus and Co-Chair: Tim Davies, Rubus Scientific sponsorships now available Premeeting Full Day Workshop: Call for abstracts now open Fermentation Concepts with Advanced Applications Two diversity travel awards are Organizers: Tim Cooper, Novozymes and Billy Allen, Bioprocess available. Apply by August 14, Mixing Solutions, LLC 2019. Saturday, October 26, 2019

April • May • June 2019 SIMB NEWS 53 meetings RAFT® 2019: Delivering Innovative Fermentation Products: and Process TIFFANY D RAU, PHD 2019 RAFT PROGRAM CHAIR The Recent Advances in Fermentation Technology (RAFT®) Bench to the manufacturing suite: 2019 meeting will encompass the many aspects that go into Scale-up, tech transfer producing a product through fermentation from organism design to commercial manufacturing. The RAFT® meeting Commercialization of fermentation processes often involves takes place every two years and is not to be missed for those scaling from very small volumes (~ 1 mL) to thousands of liters. who have been in the fermentation industry for years or those Many parameters important to fermentation do not scale in just starting. The conference will be located for the second a straight-forward manner and can be difficult to measure time at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Bonita Springs, FL and at large scale. This of course makes fermentation scale-up will take place from Oct 27 to Oct 30 2019. There will be a both challenging and rewarding when solved. Some of these preconference workshop on Saturday, October 26 entitled challenges include differences in oxygen transfer, mixing, “Fermentation concepts with advanced applications” and will shear, raw materials, measurement systems, heterogeneity, include a number of topics. Interpretation of fermentation data, and equipment capability. This session will give scientists using off- data to make process decisions, medium design and engineers a chance to share their research, experiences, concepts, mixing and mass transfer, scale-up and scale down and insights into delivering a process to the marketplace and and advanced process troubleshooting techniques are just a sustaining that process after commercialization. few of the topics that will be covered during the workshop. Conveners The RAFT® meeting will continue to be single track this year and consist of oral and round sessions, poster sessions, Frank Agbogbo – Cytovance Biologics conference lunches and dinners, two poster sessions and a Chris Stowers – Corteva Agriscience table top exhibit area.

The session topics along with abstracts written by the conveners follows and the RAFT® organizing team looks forward to individuals participating in the conference.

54 SIMB NEWS www.simbhq.org meetings

Continuous manufacturing: Conveners Opportunities and limitations Peter Becker – Glycom Denmark A/S Shushil Machhi – Medimmune Continuous Manufacturing is a relatively new and emerging Haitao Zhang – Bayer field in the area of industrial fermentation, although well implemented in many other fields such as the oil, power, food Lessons learned, best practices, and chemical industries. and case studies in fermentation

The session welcomes contributions presenting both the – Opportunities, challenges and opportunities and limitations of continuous bioprocesses. overcoming them – Round Table Opportunities and advantages of continuous manufacturing With recent advances in microbial strain development can include, for example: reduced plant size, increased technologies, fermentation derived products are increasingly consistency, reduced operation cost, single use (disposable) impacting diverse industries from pharmaceuticals, fuels and bioreactors, and more. Challenges and limitations met when chemicals to food, textiles and personal care. This explosive trying to import this system can include fitness of Continuous growth in fermentation technology brings with it an improved Manufacturing to the Biotech and Pharmaceutical industries: understanding of best practices, key challenges and ideas for instance in the development of proper scale-down models, on overcoming them. Whether it is variation in raw material identification of stable clones, control of contamination, quality, reliability of mathematical models, the small number linking upstream processes to downstream processes, level of of available measurements, or dealing with productivity, batch definition, regulatory issues and more. contamination, partners or regulations, there are several challenges we have all faced in the course of scaling up and Conveners commercialization. In this session, we want to highlight some Ghil Jona – Weitzmann such challenges, discuss how to overcome them and identify Farzaneh Rezaei – Pivot Bio opportunities for continued impact of fermentation processes. Johan Westman – Chr Hansen Conveners Cell factory design and engineering Katelijne Bekers – Ohly With the advent of a more holistic approach in bioprocess Smita Shankar – Impossible Foods development, cell factory design and engineering have reached the next level of sophistication. Systems-driven target Big data, AI and machine – identification and the widespread use of genome editing tools Disruption in strain engineering and and automated HT scale-down systems, have enabled industry bioprocess development and academia to accelerate the design of optimized cell Fast computation and inexpensive DNA synthesis enables factories. This applies equally to classical microbial workhorses opportunities to improve the design-build-test cycle in strain such as E. coli and S. cerevisiae, mammalian expression engineering and fermentation. Genomics and data systems and novel hosts. However, the full benefit of these are mined for potential metabolic pathways. Large, parallel, new workflows can only be harvested when critical product miniaturized experiments test numerous hypotheses in the quality attributes and other regulatory requirements, eg. strain microbial and fermentation design space and feed machine- stability, also can be addressed in a high-throughput manner learning models. Metabolic modeling and simulations can during the early stages of development. This session aims at identify novel pathways, create genetic regulatory networks, showcasing recent advances in the development of microbial and drive improvements in . High throughput and mammalian expression systems and the methods used fermentation platforms drive process optimization and for screening to develop high-quality and high-titer processes media screening while generating data for modeling and for the production of recombinant proteins and value-added process development. This wealth of information requires chemicals.

April • May • June 2019 SIMB NEWS 55 meetings improvements in data analysis and decision making. This production capacity and availability. session will address recent uses of big data, AI, and machine Conveners learning towards improvements in strain and fermentation. Tim Davies – Rubus Scientific and RAFT® Co-Chair Conveners Yaoping Zhang – University of Wisconsin – Madison Keith Alsaker – Evonik Ashish Sharma – NIH Please visit the RAFT® website, www.simbhq.org/raft, for more Firehiwat Tachea – Culture Biosciences information about the conference as well as opportunities to participate as a presenter and/or an attendee.

When the revolution comes: See you in warm and sunny Florida in October for the RAFT® supply and demand at the confluence 2019 meeting! of synbio, industrial biotech and manufacturing – Round Table

Supply and demand of manufacturing capacity is a critical factor in the growth of the Bioeconomy. On the demand side developers are often small companies with limited budgets developing drop in replacements in competition with powerful incumbents, or disruptive products where market pull is not established. In either case sales volumes and timing are notoriously difficult to establish. On the supply side contract manufacturing of bio-products is challenging partly due to the variety of process requirements, the large CAPEX and operational investment required to service clients and by the lack of market certainty.

Consequently, developers often struggle to raise finance due to limited manufacturing options, while contract manufacturers (CMOs) are unable to invest in capacity due to the inability of those developers to commit. This is a and egg situation that is hampering the commercial penetration of biological products. With the rapid advances being made by synbio exponents and increased market pull for biobased and biodegradable materials will we suffer an enormous production capacity shortage or will CMOs be left sitting on empty assets?

This session will bring together industry experts from both sides of the fence to present their visions of the future and to debate the challenges and needs. The audience can participate fully with lively and thoughtful discussion and through a that will be used to inform the discussion. We will seek to provide some clarity to the question of manufacturing capacity demand. CMOs and product developers are invited to submit abstracts to an associated poster session to inform the conference on challenges and

56 SIMB NEWS www.simbhq.org meetings

3rd International Conference on Discovery and Development in the Genomic Era

Wyndham Bayside Hotel January 12–16, 2020 San Diego, CA www.simbhq.org/np A joint meeting with

April • May • June 2019 SIMB NEWS 57 meetings

Co-Chairs Monday, January 13

Brian Bachmann, USA I. Natural products of bacterial origin Nigel Mouncey, USA Conveners: Eung-Soo Kim, Inha University; Catherine Ryan, Ben Shen (Chair), USA University of British Columbia Yi Tang, USA II. Natural products of eukaryotic origin Honorary Co-Chairs Conveners: Ikiro Abe, University of Tokyo; Sarah O’Connor, MIT Dr. Richard Baltz, USA Poster Session 2 Dr. Leonard Katz, USA Tuesday, January 14 Program Committee III. Novel chemistry and enzymology of natural Ikuro Abe, Japan Rolf Müller, products Gregory Challis, UK Anne Osbourn, UK Tohru Dairi, Japan Frank Petersen, Conveners: Greg Challis, University of Warwick; Bo Li, University Stefano Donadio, Catherine Ryan, Canada of North Carolina Edmund Graziani, USA Renxiang Tan, China IV. Natural product as biocatalysts Donald Hahn, USA Steven Van Lanen, USA Jo Handelsman, USA Yeo Joon Yoon, Korea Brad Moore, USCD Scripps; Allison Narayan, University of Nancy Keller, USA Wenjun Zhang, USA Michigan Eung-Soo Kim, Korea Wen Liu, China Free evening Nathan Magarvey, Canada Wednesday, January 15 Speakers V. Enabling technologies for natural products Keynote Speaker: Jon Clardy, Conveners: Nigel Mouncey, JGI and Nathan Magarvey, Banquet Speaker: Bill Fenical, Scripps/UCSD McMaster University Meeting Schedule VI. Natural products for new targets and biology Conveners; Brian Bachmann, Vanderbilt University; Wenjun Sunday, January 12 Zhang, University of California-Berkeley Noon Registration Banquet and lecture 5-6 pm Keynote lecture Thursday, January 16 6-8 pm Poster Session/reception VII. Natural product and development

Conveners: Rolf Mueller, ; Carole Bewley, NIH

Adjourn

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book review

by Elisabeth Elder

Plant-Microbe Interactions in the Rhizosphere Adam Schikora, editor Caister Academic Press, UK ISBN: 978-1—912530-00-7 (paperback) ISBN: 978-1-912530-01-4 (ebook) 2018

As the editor of Plant-Microbe Interactions in the Rhizosphere Adam Schikora pulled together a broad group of contributors representing institutions in France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and the United . The first chapter covers metabolism in the rhizosphere with the major focus being heterotrophic metabolism in bacteria-bacteria interactions and bacteria-plant interactions. Many of the organic substrates metabolized within the rhizosphere are discussed.

The second chapter covers the role of and horizontal gene transfer in bacteria associated with plants and the roles the plasmids play in bacteria-plant interactions. Functions of plasmids in the rhizosphere, endosphere, and phyllosphere are included as are beneficial and pathogenic traits. Plasmids have been found to be involved in plant responses to biotic and to abiotic stresses. Plasmids have also been found to be involved in resistance and heavy resistance in bacteria. The presence of these plasmids in enteric organisms could present human health risks if the organisms are consumed on fresh fruits and vegetables.

Chapter three covers plant . The combination of preformed and inducible systems allow plants to be resistant to many pathogens. Preformed plant defenses block pathogen entry and are major mechanisms in defense. When invading microbes are detected the induced defenses come into play. These include microbe-associated molecular pattern (MAMP)-triggered immunity (MIT) which depend on Patter-Recognition Receptors (PPRs) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI) which rely on plant R proteins.

The fourth chapter covers endofungal bacteria which are present in hyphae as well as in spores. Their roles aren’t completely understood but may include promotion of plant growth, improvement of plant resistance, as well as decreased loss of yield. Interestingly endofungal bacteria were discovered approximately 40 years ago but few have been isolated and how they enter fungal cells has not been determined.

April • May • June 2019 SIMB NEWS 61 book review

Chapter five covers the important functions of rhizosphere microbes in plant-nematode interactions. One focus is on hyperparasitic microbes which antagonize phytonematodes and how these interactions may be impacted by crop rotation. Another focus is plant defense systems which are triggered by nematode-associated microbes. This chapter also covers plant-nematode-microbe interactions in integrated management.

The final chapter covers apple replant disease (ARD). Many areas worldwide have been planted and replanted for apple production. With subsequent plantings, plant growth is suppressed as are apple yields and apple quality. The causes are poorly understood but include changes in soil properties, faunal vectors, trophic cascades, and changes in secondary metabolism. While soil disinfection is possible, the most likely control will result from improving soil microbial and faunal diversity as well as quality.

Each chapter can stand as an individual unit – the topics are well organized and well supported by references. Each chapter also provides an integral part to the overall book without being redundant. The text is well supported by pertinent charts, tables, and figures. The book will be of particular interest to soil , environmental microbiologists, and plant scientists with likely applicability among graduate students and faculty plus researchers in soil conservation, crop rotation, and bioremediation.

62 SIMB NEWS www.simbhq.org members Board of Directors election results for 2019 Congratulations to the winners of the 2019 Board of Directors election. The incoming officers will begin their terms at the annual business meeting July 24, 2019.

President-elect Steve Decker, NREL

Directors Katy Kao, Texas A&M

Priti Pharyka, Genomatica

Thanks to all who participated in the 2019 election.

April • May • June 2019 SIMB NEWS 63 committee corner The Inception of the SIMB Diversity Committee by Sara Shields-Menard

In 2014, by direction of then SIMB President Leonard our interest in science, diversity in STEM, and the bright Katz, the Diversity Committee was formed with Susan future ahead for SIMB. Highlights of those conversations Bagley, Professor Emeritus at Michigan Technological are below. University (Michigan Tech) (Houghton, MI), and Raul How did you become interested in science? Cano, Professor Emeritus at California Polytechnic State University (San Luis Obispo, CA), leading the way. The SB: My father (a surgeon) was very interested in science, mission of the SIMB Diversity Committee is to integrate particularly environmental studies. He got his interests cultural sensitivity and a commitment to gender, racial from his father, also a surgeon, who was very active in and ethnic diversity throughout the organizational environmental/conservation efforts. I can’t remember structure of SIMB and the broader community of when I wasn’t interested in environment/science but Biotechnology. Current committee members include my first formal memory is preparing a project for a 7th Sara Shields-Menard (co-chair; Nicholls State University, grade science fair. My first scientific interest was . Thibodaux, LA), Felipe Sarmiento (co-chair; Ginkgo This was fairly easy to study at the organismal level and Bioworks, Boston, MA), Laura Jarboe (Iowa State was the subject of all of my science fair studies. University, Ames, IA), Noel Fong (Nucelis, San Diego, CA), Sheena Becker (Corteva, Wilmington, DE), Ganesh SSM: My family obviously had a big impact on my Sriram (University of Maryland, College Park, MD), interest in science. I spent many summers on my Nigel Mouncey (ad-hoc; Department of Energy’s Joint grandparents’ farm in North Louisiana. They knew so Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, CA), and Susan Bagley much about the land, its native plants and wildlife. It (emeritus co-chair; Michigan Tech). was always interesting to me when they shared their knowledge with me. My dad is an engineer and was The phrase “Lift as You Climb” is often used as a always working on things around the house. He would metaphor for women to empower other women on use me and my siblings as his helpers on projects, it their career paths instead of fighting each other to was fun to build or fix things. He taught me that there’s the top. As I wrote this article on Susan Bagley, the a process to making something work. My mom, a outgoing Diversity Committee Chair, and myself, the librarian, encouraged reading and always told me that new co-chair of the Diversity Committee, I thought of if I wrote or spoke a word, I should know the meaning that expression. At my first SIMB meeting, I thought, of it. “I have found my people!” Years later, it is still true. As a graduate student I was involved with the Diversity What is your field of STEM and your research Committee as a member working on focus? and travel awards. Now, as Susan’s term as co-chair SB: My main area has always been environmental has been completed and I try to fill those shoes, I am microbiology, defined as dealing with microbes that grateful for Susan’s mentorship, her leadership of this are potentially of environmental harm or benefit. Committee, and paving the way for this new team - truly lifting as she climbed. Through email we discussed

64 SIMB NEWS www.simbhq.org committee corner

SSM: Same! My main research focus has been on amazing opportunity to facilitate these mentor/mentee environmental microbiology, particularly in biofuels. relationships. Another goal is to provide programming for people to learn more about best practices on Why do you think diversity and inclusion are so diversity and inclusion concepts so participants can important and how has your thinking changed bring these ideas back to their workplace. It’s my hope over time? that we’re fostering relationships, advancing careers, SB: It may sound trite, but diversity of all types enhances and providing information that changes workplace creativity and helps people to work together by having behavior. increased understanding and appreciation for other What accomplishments are you proud of that cultures or points of view. My early focus early was were initiated by the Diversity Committee? mainly on women and diversity. This is in part because most places where I went to school/worked mainly SB and SSM: We are proud that the Board of Directors had women as the sole minority. Most STEM areas are has whole-heartedly supported these efforts. We have also relatively low in women and underrepresented an entire session devoted to diversity and inclusion, minorities. which is not common among other societies and organizations. The graduate travel awards for all SIMB SSM: I think diversity and inclusion are important meetings are a tangible achievement. We get to meet because without it, we are missing out on so many these award winners and that’s rewarding for us. perspectives and talents that could advance really big ideas. My thinking of this has changed in that now I What of the future of the Diversity Committee? focus more on inclusion. What’s the point of bringing a And SIMB? bunch of diverse people to the table if no one feels like SB: I would like to see more meeting attendees at the they are wanted there? Underrepresented minorities SIMB-sponsored session, of course. Perhaps getting and women are interested in STEM and go into these more corporate interest and support would help fields at higher numbers than previously seen, but publicize the session and perhaps attract attendees now we see this cohort of women and minorities not who work at these companies. Ideally, we would get to advancing up the ladder. the point where discussions are not about why diversity What is your goal in being on the Diversity is important/necessary but cover different practices Committee? that are used.

SB: My personal goal was to have the Committee be so established that the SIMB Board of Directors and membership would embrace and support the Committee’s efforts. It was also important to establish a plan and have the efforts of the initial group (and co-chairs) would continue.

SSM: My goal is of this Committee is to bring new people to SIMB and give them the stage for their research while exposing the next generation of scientists, grad students and post-docs, to someone who may look like them. One of the great things about SIMB is that it’s easy to get involved and approach speakers and senior scientists. This presents an

April • May • June 2019 SIMB NEWS 65 committee corner

The future of SIMB is still in finding that essential niche was considerable interest in forming a committee to that will be indispensable for industrial, academic, consider women’s concerns and issues. I proposed and even non-profits. Being a small, more focused to Leonard Katz, the incoming SIMB President, that a society should be to SIMB’s advantage. I don’t think it Presidential ad-hoc Committee be formed to discuss is a surprise to anyone that some of the much larger establishing a “Women in SIMB” committee and to applied microbiology societies are not necessarily report back to the President and Board of Directors in considered relevant. Given the global importance of the next year. Leonard surprised me by announcing what SIMB covers, it seems that links with similar groups in his opening remarks as President that he was outside the US should be expanded. It is also important establishing a Diversity Committee with me as Chair. to attract younger/more diverse membership/meeting This was a bit of a game-changer as I did not feel attendees to help keep the Society highly relevant for qualified to represent all areas of diversity. There had now and the future. been discussion of having a separate “underrepresented minority” committee once we had a framework for the SSM: I agree with Susan. We have made progress in women’s committee. Fortunately, Raul Cano, who had advancing the importance of diversity and inclusion, extensive experience in other areas, agreed to be co- but it would be great to be at a place where students, chair of this new committee. In 2014, we developed the faculty, and industry scientists are sharing ideas vision, mission, and goals, recruited members, and we and tools. I would also like to see the development were off and running. of a mentorship program and for SIMB to grow in membership.

What are your hobbies outside of science?

SB: Traveling, birding, boating, fishing

SSM: Traveling, watching the Pelicans and the Saints, going to festivals, and renovating a house

How did the Diversity Committee come to be?

The origins of the SIMB Diversity Committee, as told by Susan Bagley (former Co-chair):

There had been discussion for a number of years on having formal efforts related to women in SIMB. Joan Bennett and other SIMB members had been active in this area and were also active (as was I) with such efforts in the American Society for Microbiology. Joan organized a session with “more experienced” women for a SIMB Meeting wherein the participants talked about their experiences – great, and not so great, as women in science and other STEM areas including what mentors each had. This was very well attended, and interest was expressed in having a similar session but with women early in their careers. This session was also very well–received. In the discussion period, there

66 SIMB NEWS www.simbhq.org calendar Meetings & Continuing Education

SIMB Meetings

July 21–24, 2019 SIMB Annual Meeting and Exhibition Marriott Wardman Park Washington, D.C. www.simbhq.org/annual

October 27–30, 2019 Recent Advances in Fermentation Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Technology (RAF T®) Ft. Myers, FL www.simbhq.org/raft

January 12-16, 2020 3rd International Conference on Wyndham San Diego Bayside Hotel Natural Products Discovery and San Diego, CA Development in the Genomic Era www.simbhq.org/np

April 26-29, 2020 42nd Symposium on Biotechnology for Astor Crowne Plaza Fuels and Chemicals New Orleans, LA www.simbhq.org/sbfc

August 9-12, 2020 SIMB 70th Annual Meeting and Hyatt Regency Exhibition San Francisco, CA www.simbhq.org/annual

Other Industry Meetings

July 28, 2019 Natural Products and Bioactive Andover, NH Compounds - GRC https://www.grc.org

August 26-27, 2019 Environmental Microbiology and Public Toronto, Canada Health Microbiology http://www.lexisconferences.com

September 3-6, 2019 ASM/ESCMID Conferences on Drug Boston, MA Development to Meet the Challenge Of https://asm.org/Events Resistances

September 27-28, 3rd International Conference on Toronto, Canada 2019 Microbes and Beneficial Microbes https://beneficialmicrobes. conferences.com

April • May • June 2019 SIMB NEWS 67 committee corner

SIMB Committees 2018–2019

Committee Chair Email Term Members Staff Liason expires

Annual Meeting 2019 Katy Kao [email protected] 2019 See Program Committee Tina Hockaday, Chris Lowe Archives Debbie Chadick [email protected] 2022 Paul Cino, Doug Eveleigh, Jennifer Johnson Ann Kulback Awards/Honors Mahendra Jain [email protected] 2021 Kenneth Bruno, Kathy Chris Lowe Asleson Dundon, Tom Jeffries, Raj Boopathy Audit & Investment Jeff Schwartz [email protected] 2020 George Garrity Chris Lowe, Advisory Espie Montesa Herb Ward [email protected] 2020 Diversity Sara Shields-Menard [email protected] 2021 Noel Fong, Laura Jarboe, Jennifer Johnson, Sheena Becker, Vanessa Chris Lowe Felipe Sarmiento [email protected] 2020 Nepomuceno

Education and Joy Doran-Peterson [email protected] 2020 Mark Berge, Stephanie Chris Lowe Outreach Gleason, Noel Fong, Laura Jarboe, Jeni Ton, Steve Van Dien Elections Kristien Mortelmans [email protected] 2019 Badal Saha Jennifer Johnson Exhibits Elisabeth Elder [email protected] 2021 Lisa Soto, Bob Berger, Abbie Tina Hockaday More Finance Laura Jarboe [email protected] 2020 Finance Committee Chris Lowe Meeting Sites Chris Lowe [email protected] - BOD and meeting chairs Corporate Member Andreas Schirmer [email protected] 2020 Don Hahn, Corteva; Jennifer Johnson Outreach Jonathan Sheridan, Yoram Barak [email protected] 2020 Teslagen Membership- Stephanie Gleason [email protected] 2021 Laura Jarboe, Thomas Jennifer Johnson individual Klasson, Steve Van Dien Nominations George Garrity [email protected] 2019 Nigel Mouncey, Thomas Chris Lowe Klasson, Yoram Barak, Kristala Jones Prather Placement Bob Berger [email protected] 2020 Sara Dorman Jennifer Johnson Planning Janet Westpheling [email protected] 2019 Chris Lowe Publications Nigel Mouncey [email protected] 2020 George Garrity, Herb Ward Chris Lowe JIMB Ramon Gonzalez [email protected] 2020 JIMB Editors SIMB Melanie Mormile [email protected] 2024 Kristien Mortelmans, Katherine Devins News Elisabeth Elder, Vanessa Neopmuceno Presidential Ad Hoc Committees-expire 2019 Ethics Committee Susan Bagley [email protected] 2019 Scott Baker, Neal Connors International Susanne Kleff [email protected] 2019 Scott Baker, Tim Davies, Outreach George Garrity, Peter Punt, Thomas Klasson, Erick Vandamme, Michael Resch

68 SIMB NEWS www.simbhq.org committee corner

Special Conferences Term SBFC 2020 Claus Felby [email protected] 2021 Scott Baker [email protected] 2022 Seema Singh [email protected] 2019 NP 2020 Ben Shen [email protected] 2020 BrianBachmann [email protected] 2020 Nigel Mouncey [email protected] 2020 Yi Tang [email protected] 2020 RAFT® 2019 Tim Davies [email protected] 2019 Tiffany Rau -2019

April • May • June 2019 SIMB NEWS 69 Become a SIMB Corporate Member

Member Benefits: • Meeting Registration Discounts (Each $500 voucher is good toward any SIMB meeting registration fee) Silver - 1 $500 voucher Gold – 2 vouchers Diamond - 3 vouchers Other Current Benefits: • Recognition and corporate profile in SIMB News • Discounted exhibit booths • Discounted advertisements and job postings 201 SIMB Corporate Membership Application

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